In vehicle mode Hot Rod was one of the fastest Autobots, in fact he had only heard of one faster, a young bot from the other side of the planet, an appropriately named Blurr. He knew that Kup would be sending out recon bots to find him, Autobot recruits do not escape from the Iacon training camp, Ultra Magnus’ orders. Ever since Optimus Prime and the great Autobots vanished on an energy hunting mission the Autobot commander had been keeping a tight reign on the remaining few Autobots.

As Hot Rod spun round a corner he suddenly realized he was in a completely unknown part of The Maze.

“What the…?” he slammed on his breaks and transformed to his robot mode, his sidearm in hand.

“Yes, he’s Hot Rod, the Autobot who is fated to become Rodimus Prime! The Autobot leader who will lead the way till the great Optimus Prime returns, the one who will pave the way for the Autobot’s victory over the Decepticons, and the one who will spur the metamorphosis of the Autobots and Decepticons into the Maximals and Predicons! Into us!”

The two horsemen looked out the window next to them, a window that overlooked a training compound, a compound that didn’t exist… At least not yet…